India crash out of T20 World Cup

Defending champions India lost to England by 3 runs in a must win game. Chasing a modest 153, India failed to build momentum in the middle overs and fell short of the mark, reports Arjun Sen. Listen to podcast | See full coverage

The champions have crashed. A three-run loss at Lord's to England on Sunday sealed India's fate in the World T20 and made sure that there will be new T20 world champions come June 21. Chasing 154, they ended their innings on 150/5.

Chasing on a wicket that was helping the fast bowlers, the well-documented shortcomings against the rising ball were exposed by an England attack that showed intent. The West Indies' pacers had shown on Friday just how extra pace and bounce can trouble this much-vaunted Indian line-up, and that seemed to be the English gameplan on Sunday.

Opting for the extra pacer in Ryan Sidebottom, Paul Collinwood's team did exceedingly well in containing, and removing the Indian batsmen.

The fall started as early as the second over when Rohit Sharma dragged Sidebottom on to his stumps while attempting a pull. Suresh Raina went in identical fashion, though he was caught at deep square leg while pulling.

The Lord's wicket has not been the kindest to the Indians on this tour, and it was no different on Sunday.

Young Ravindra Jadeja was sent in at four and struggled for the 35 balls he was there, managing only 25 runs with just one hit to the fence. As the run-rate crept up on India, the chants of 'Yuvi-Yuvi' reverberated across the stadium. The England bowlers had kept things very tight with Jadeja and Gambhir in the middle, and got their reward with Gambhir's wicket in the 11th over.

That brought in Yuvraj and he gave the partisan Indian crowd just what they wanted with a wonderfully executed six off his first ball. He, however, could manage only one more, before being smartly stumped by James Foster off Graeme Swann. A deadly hush followed Yuvraj's fall, with most of the Indian hopes falling with him.

There was a fighting 58-run stand between MS Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan in the end, perhaps the only period of the game where the Indian batsmen showed real intent, but it wasn't enough. It might have gone down to the last ball, but India were always second best.